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The Great Green-Washing Debate We stirred the pot on this issue last week, and now the industry is also beginning to express its frustration at those falsely claiming their hotels are ‘green.’ Thursday, July 31, 2008 Glenn Haussman

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Related Companies MTM Luxury Lodging Cypress Bath, Bed & Spa

Last week I posted an article on the rampant green-washing occurring in the hospitality industry (read it here). Basically, management at properties not genuinely interested in participating in good environmental stewardship are hoodwinking the traveling public into thinking quite the opposite. They’ve created a veneer of environmental responsibility, when the truth is they’re doing very little - or nothing at all - when it comes to implementing real solutions.

Meanwhile, some hotels and brands are making a good faith effort and a financial commitment to getting things done the right way. But with no lodging business system in place, there is no industry-wide criterion on which to gauge the level of sustainability a hotel has achieved.

The piece caused quite a firestorm of feedback from various hotel industry professionals that are fed up with green-washing and agree with Hotel Interactive’s assessment that something needs to be done to fix this crazy mess.

Fortunately everyone seems to be on our side, even if it’s an issue that is for the most part being whispered about. “I applaud you for your courage in verbalizing what is probably on the minds of many hoteliers. We are fully supportive of a sensible and sustainable approach and debate that you suggest,” said Ramesh Gokal, President & COO of Vista Inns.

We’re looking for a full-fledged conversation and practical solutions to this issue. Take this case as an example of why we are so frustrated.

According to Dirk Winter, the owner of west coast-based Moonstone Hotels, green-washing is really affecting hotels in his home state of California. “For 18 years my company has been trying to move towards environmental sustainability without any PR hype.  Now we see properties jumping on this bandwagon with very little real effort,” said Winter.

What really aggravates him is that in his area water has long been a critical issue.  But while he has tried to mitigate the situation by reusing the last rinse of the previous laundry cycle as the cold water (with ozone) first rinse in the next load, others are not. Instead, he said they are sending their laundry off premises, then claiming they are using less water.

It’s this type of shell game that has tilted the playing field so far in favor of the unprincipled; I’m surprised people such as Winter haven’t just given up in frustration.

Meanwhile, supplier Gene Faul, CEO of Cypress Hotel & Spa, also shares his frustration. “My opinion is that anything which saves energy and conserves natural resources is ‘green’. Not washing towels and sheets every day is ludicrous and a feeble attempt to be green,” said Faul.

They’re harsh words to be sure, but they’re necessary to get out in the open. The industry’s dirty little secret must be brought directly out into the open. It’s the only way to squash the posers and praise the innovators who are leading the way to a greener tomorrow. 

These days LEED certification is the de facto standard bearer of what constitutes a sustainable or green hotel. But as we’ve discussed, the standards are not hotel industry-specific, which leads to there being flaws in the system. Even so, companies such as MTM Luxury Lodging are doing their best to work within an imperfect system to do what they can. It’s the right thing to do, even if it’s not the long-term solution.

According to MTM principal James Simkins, they’re working on the final stages of the Bardessono Inn & Spa, due to open early next year in Yountville, Napa Valley.  They are there to help the property achieve Platinum status, US Green Building Council’s Green Building Rating System’s top accreditation. He sees this project as bringing what he calls ‘deep green’ solutions to the mix.

The property is doing things the guest will never be aware of, such as recycling 99.8 percent of construction waste, even the lunch bags of workers.  Drainage protection measures were taken to ensure no silt went into the local creek and construction materials were often born from recycled materials. 

Here is the really cool part, however. Guestrooms will be heated and cooled through the use of a geothermal field and heat exchangers.  Simkins provided Hotel Interactive with material that explained they drilled “82 wells 300 feet deep. We pump water from those wells and extract heat or cold from the water and through a heat exchanger send heated water to a small heat pump in the ceiling of your guest room to heat the room, or the system sends cooled water to air condition your room.  The only electricity used is to run the pumps, far less than would be required to heat and cool your room directly with electricity or gas.  But the system is all buried underground so you won’t notice,” the material notes.

He gave me myriad more examples of what they were doing, but they’re too numerous to mention here.

The point is, however, though this hotel is doing so much at an added cost to create the model of a sustainable property, will the general public be able to differentiate between that effort and properties that are heavily involved in green-washing propaganda? While I believe they will get some additional credit in the consumer’s mind, I don’t think it will be nearly enough to clearly delineate the differences in their efforts compared to the fakers.

And that’s just wrong.

I don’t want anyone to think we are against the good work that LEED is doing. However, we do believe there needs to be specific standards for hotels. Remember, LEED was designed for office buildings. It’s a totally different mindset for design and construction and one that does not overlay perfectly.

Michael Suomi, VP of Design with Stonehill & Taylor Architects, agrees. “LEED isn't only the best system available today, it's really the only system.  I can't wait until LEED issues specific hotel guidelines, but until that time we will continue to push LEED as the only true benchmark for sustainable and energy efficient design for our hotel clients.”

Good point. But we need to work these issues out so that individuals that are working hard to get accreditation are putting their money into the right places.